ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
The life and times of jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., patriarch of the Marsalis Music Family, whose standards of music excellence transcended racial injustices, taught a cadre of young jazz stars, and from his hometown New Orleans changed modern jazz.
SYNOPSIS
“Who taught you how to play like that?”
“My dad.”
Already beloved in New Orleans, Ellis Marsalis became known beyond his hometown for teaching the “who’s who of jazz” from his sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason to film composer Terence Blanchard and performer Harry Connick Jr. Yet, Ellis shaped modern music long before his famous sons and students entered the scene, composing and performing major works of modern jazz infused with a uniquely New Orleans touch.
Told by Ellis, his sons, and disciples, Ellis chronicles the major stations of his life: Ellis grew up in segregation in a family that owned the first hotel for Black patrons in the region, navigated a post-segregation society where race-based hierarchies did not dissolve easily, and pursued his love for bebop in a city devoted to traditional jazz while the US was taken over by rock and pop. Ellis raised a family of exceptionally talented musicians on a teacher’s salary and released his own recordings, because no record company would. Finally, he secured record deals, built university jazz programs, and became a sought-after mentor for a music vanguard.
A solo concert Ellis exclusively performed for the film and concerts captured at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York and Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro New Orleans are at the heart of the film. Concerts and interviews are interlaced with verité scenes that place Ellis in his city as archival footage takes the audience back the early twentieth century when Ellis’ parents met, to California of the fifties where Ellis served in the Marines and to New York of the seventies where he met stars like Miles Davis—showing us America through the story of a master musician who was dedicated to his artistic ideals, to his family, and to educating the next generation.
PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature
DIRECTOR Sascha Just
PRODUCER Sascha Just
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Lothar Just
WEBSITE saschajust.com